Was the Clinton Administration's effort to restrict the sale of U.S.
guns designed to assist China's sale of illegal assault rifles in the U.S.?
Maybe not. But it would explain a particularly bizarre incident occurring
in Long Beach, California and detailed in the recently released Cox Report.

In September 1995, President Bill Clinton met with Long Beach officials
to encourage the private development of the recently mothballed Long Beach
Naval Air Station. Port officials planned to lease the base to COSCO, a
shipping line owned and operated by the Chinese government.1 A few months
later, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms running an
undercover operation discovered a COSCO ship carrying 2,000 illegal Chinese-made
AK-47 assault rifles for sale to Southern California street gangs.2

President Clinton then traveled once again to Long Beach to meet with
city officials to promote the COSCO lease. Inexplicably, he advocated the
lease without even requesting a national security review by the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA). Apparently, economic relations with China were
more important to him than the safety of American citizens.3

This was not the only time that the Clinton Administration sacrificed
our security for the sake of improving relations with China.

In 1992, the Clinton Administration began granting waivers to aerospace
companies, allowing satellite launches on Chinese rockets. Following mishaps
resulting in the destruction of U.S. satellites, the Hughes and Loral corporations
provided technical assistance to the Chinese without government approval.
This assistance allowed the Chinese to increase the reliability and performance
of their ballistic missiles.4

Rather than restricting satellite launches or tightening launch security
in response to these incidents, President Clinton transferred the authority
over such launches from the State Department to the Commerce Department.
The authority thus transferred from a department concerned with national
security to one concerned with increasing trade.5

In an effort to continue engaging China, President Clinton also ignored
intelligence information regarding Chinese arms sales. In 1993, a CIA report
concluded that China had shipped 34 M-11 ballistic missiles to Pakistan.
Under the Missile Technology Control Regime, the U.S. is required to impose
sanctions upon the receipt of such information. But the Clinton Administration
rejected the CIA's information, leading Gordon Oehler, then-director of
the CIA's Nonproliferation Center, to note that the administration "regularly
dismissed" intelligence information.6

In a similar incident in 1996, the CIA informed the President of a Chinese
shipment of magnets used to make bomb-grade uranium to Pakistan. Instead
of imposing sanctions (as mandated by law), the White House negotiated an
agreement on nonproliferation with China. The Nuclear Control Institute
reported that the commitment had loopholes "big enough to push an atom
bomb through."7 Indeed, only a few months later, further shipments
of nuclear equipment to Pakistan were reported, but again, no action was
taken.8

In yet another ill-conceived plan designed to engage China, the Department
of Energy exempted the Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories (where
nuclear weapons research occurs) from security safeguards, including background
checks on foreign employees.9 Not surprisingly, the number of Chinese nationals
working at Los Alamos has risen by over 400% since.10

So what has Chinese engagement accomplished for us? Pakistan and India
are at war over a border dispute, thanks in part to nuclear tests and military
escalation made possible by China.11 China has gathered information from
U.S. nuclear laboratories giving them warhead design information on a par
with our own.12 The U.S. trade deficit with China has risen to $58 billion.13
The Chinese government has begun a severe crackdown on dissidents and religious
movements.14 China's threats toward Taiwan have reached new levels.15 The
progress on many issues that engagement was supposed to bring us hasn't
materialized.

After all these setbacks, can anyone still believe that kowtowing to
China is beneficial?

Apparently so. In an egregious display of bad timing, President Clinton
proposed the continued extension of normal trade relations (formerly known
as Most-Favored Nation trading status) with China earlier this year, only
hours before the tenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.16

Not even Congress has been immune to engagement fever. While Congress
did kill the COSCO lease and protect satellite launches in the past year,
they refused to take any substantive action to persuade China to change
its ways. Indeed, the House of Representatives recently approved continued
normal trade relations. The next critical issue will be the upcoming negotiations
to allow China into the World Trade Organization, an idea that President
Clinton supports. To do so would complete the process of capitulation to
China, as it would effectively prevent the U.S. from using trade restrictions
as a tool in future negotiations.

Both the Clinton Administration and Congress have continually acquiesced
in the face of Chinese defiance. If they do not make a stand soon, they
may never be able to change Chinese behavior.

14 "Five dissidents Held as Purge Continues,"
South China Morning Post, June 21, 1999; Eric Eckholm, "China is Sentencing
Dissidents to Jail Terms of Up to Four Years," New York Times, June
11, 1999; Michael Laris, "Spiritual Group Protests in 30 Cities Across
China," Washington Post, July 22, 1999.